J Korean Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry.  2012 Jun;23(2):69-75.

Teachers' Recognition of Victims of School Bullying Using Data from the Adolescents' Mental Health and Problem Behavior Screening Questionnaire-II Standardization Study in Korea

• Hwang JW
• Bhang SY
• Yoo HK
• Kim JH
• Kim B
• Ahn D
• Suh DS
• Cho SC
• Bahn GH
• Lee YS

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
The current study was conducted in order to investigate teachers'recognition of school bullying using a nationwide database of adolescents in middle and high school in Korea.
METHODS
Students in the 7th to 12th grades at 23 secondary schools participated in the current study during the fall of 2009. Subjects completed the self-report form of the Adolescent Mental Health and Problem Behavior Screening Questionnaire-II (AMPQ-II) and Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R). In addition, relevant teachers used the teachers' rating scale of the AMPQ-II to report their students' status. Differences in the number of bullied students between teachers' recognition and students' report were explored.
RESULTS
A total of 2270 subjects provided relevant responses to the questionnaire. While the one-month prevalence of victimization according to students' self-reports was 28.9%, the recognized prevalence by teachers was only 10.6%. For prediction of the presence of school bullying according to students' self reports on the AMPQ-II, item 7 of the teachers' report on the AMPQ-II showed a sensitivity of 16%, a specificity of 92%, a positive predictability of 44%, a negative predictability of 72%, a false positive rate of 8%, a false negative rate of 84%, and an accuracy of 69%, respectively. No significant differences in subscores of students' self reports of the AMPQ-II and SCL-90-R were observed between bullied students who were recognized by teachers and those who were not recognized. In stepwise discriminant analysis, classification of teachers' item 2 and item 7 on the AMPQ-II with respect to school bullying according to students' reports showed an accuracy of 63.4%. Using this model, 75.2% of non-victimized subjects were classified correctly, while only 35.2% of victimized subjects were classified correctly.
CONCLUSION
Despite the high prevalence in Korea, teachers' recognition of school violence among their students remains low. Pre-professional and continuing education to improve teachers' understanding of school bullying and knowledge of effective classroom-based prevention activities should be encouraged.

Keyword

Bullying Victim; Prevalence; Teachers' Recognition

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Bullying
Crime Victims
Education, Continuing
Humans
Korea
Mass Screening
Mental Health
Prevalence
Self Report
Sensitivity and Specificity
Violence
Surveys and Questionnaires